Ravi Kahlon

Ravi Kahlon’s original sporting interest was football, but by the age of 12 he had decided to follow in the footsteps of his father and grandfather and pursue field hockey instead. Although a lack of options forced him to join the girls’ team at first, he eventually rose to the rank of captain of the junior Canadian national team in 1999. By then he was a student at Camosun College, and the following year he was selected for the senior national team, which placed 10th in the tournament at the 2000 Sydney Olympics. He was sixth with the squad at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, but then took silver at the Pan American Games the following year, albeit failing to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics. He was with the team when they placed ninth at the 2006 Commonwealth Games and finally took home gold at the 2007 Pan American Games. His last major international tournament was the 2008 Beijing Olympics, where Canada again placed 10th. He retired shortly thereafter and turned to coaching, and was inducted into the Delta Sports Hall of Fame in 2013.

In 2016, Kahlon embarked upon a career in provincial politics with the left-wing British Columbia New Democratic Party (NDP). He won a seat in the Legislative Assembly the following year and became part of the ministry of the new minority NDP government.